Cracking price at auction

Entered into the October 21 sale at Bishop & Miller (18% buyer’s premium) by a Suffolk vendor thinning out his collection, these carved boxwood nutcrackers, right, made an immediate impact on bidders at the Stowmarket rooms.

The 5in (13cm) long lever-action nutcrackers were carved as a jester with a beast’s mouth, a form similar to that made in Germany and France from as early as the 16th century. These were catalogued as 18th century and were possibly German.

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